President Barack Obama wants to ensure that those working more than 40 hours a week get overtime. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says that will hurt business. / Mark Wilson/Getty Images

President Barack Obama wants to strengthen overtime pay protections for millions of workers in an effort to help salaried workers who work more than 40 hours a week without receiving overtime. The proposed change is part of Obama’s effort to close the gap between the wealthy and the poor. The readers of Freep.com jumped all over the news:

What's so bad about paying overtime to those who are working more than 40 hours? It's the law, but a few employers call people "supervisors" to get around it.

Brenda Smith-Meyer

This president is doing all he can to see unemployment rise and full time jobs turn into part time. Anything to force more people on to subsidised Obamacare.

Joseph P. Warren

It is funny how a man with no business background knows how to run a company. This will result in less profits and anyone in business knows that if profits go down so does the ability of the company to employ people. Another example of the government doing something in the name of the people that will end up hurting the working people. Unintended consequence rules the day when people who know nothing try to fix problems that don't exist.

Ken Thompson

Can't imagine what it would be like if Congress was there to help the middle class instead of ignoring it.

Tom Bouck

An excellent move by Obama. If you can't get a Republican House to agree on anything to do with job creation, then take the bull by the horns. If companies can't pile their extra work on to people they don't have to pay overtime to, the incentive will be gone for businesses not to hire new workers and that will create more jobs.

William Garbonzo

Most business owners don't abuse their employees, they want them happy. If a business owner can only afford to pay a supervisor a set amount of money, this law won’t change that. A business owner makes the supervisor hourly, keeps the hours to 40 or less and hires another person to divide up the time. Laws like this one won't fix what's broken, but rather break what's not broken.

John Lorenz

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Drop out of high school, drop out of college, have no job skills and your time is valuable and anything above 40 hours a week requires additional compensation.

Have a college education, desirable job skills and experience in your position and your time isn't worth as much and you get no protection at all.

Either apply protections across the board for everyone or don't apply them at all.

Nathan Robinson

I have yet, since graduating from college in 1982, to work for an employer that doesn't use salaried job classifications to avoid overtime pay, and my previous job, my manager flat out mandated more than 40 hours a week, and yes, it was without overtime pay.

Leonard F. Agius

As always, for the far right, some minor increases to the standard of living for the working class instantly becomes a slippery slope to socialism!

How long do you think you guys can keep up this up? I figure you got a few more years before you either dramatically change policies or get subsumed by the liberal millennials.

Michael Gatto

If an employer requires an employee to work overtime, shouldn't he also be required to pay for that labor, regardless of the revenue or profit it generates? I always thought labor costs were an expense incurred as a cost of doing business, similar to the power and water bills.

Ted Miller

a) this is not a battle with "big" business but with all businesses, most especially small ones who don't have a team of lawyers to figure out the fine print. Once again, businesses will take their eye off the ball (finding better ways to take care of customers, grow their business, HIRE PEOPLE) and focus instead on what one more set of fantasy-world regulations means to them.